NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event in the NXT TakeOver series that took place on January 27, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, United States. The event is produced by WWE for its NXT brand and it was streamed live on the WWE Network. Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Andrade "Cien" Almas defeated Johnny Gargano to retain the NXT Championship. On the undercard, Ember Moon retained the NXT Women's Championship against Shayna Baszler and Aleister Black defeated Adam Cole in an Extreme Rules match. The event was also notable for the return of Tommaso Ciampa. The main event received a 5 star rating by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter which is the first NXT match, WWE's sixth match, and the first match since 2011 to receive this rating. Storylines The card included five matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers. Storylines were produced on the NXT television program. NXT TakeOver is a series of professional wrestling shows that began on May 29, 2014, as the WWE developmental league NXT held their second WWE Network exclusive live broadcast billed as NXT TakeOver. In subsequent months, the "TakeOver" moniker became the brand used by WWE for all of their NXT live specials. NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia was the nineteenth overall show held under the NXT TakeOver banner, and the first to be held in 2018. On the December 6 episode of NXT, NXT General Manager William Regal announced that a series of matches which included Kassius Ohno vs. Johnny Gargano (the latter replaced The Velveteen Dream), Aleister Black vs. Adam Cole, Killian Dain vs. Trent Seven and Roderick Strong vs. Lars Sullivan took place to have the winners of these four matches go into a fatal-four way match to determine the number one contender for the NXT Championship. The winners were Gargano, Dain, Black, and Sullivan, who then fought in the aforementioned fatal four-way match on the December 27 episode of NXT, which Gargano won after Black was distracted by The Undisputed Era, granting him a match with NXT Champion Andrade "Cien" Almas at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. On the December 6 episode of NXT, Aleister Black defeated Adam Cole to earn a spot in the fatal-four way number one contender's match. On the December 27 episode of NXT, The Undisputed Era cost Black an opportunity at the NXT Championship in the aforementioned fatal four-way match. On the January 10 episode of NXT, Black teamed with Roderick Strong to challenge Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly for their NXT Tag Team Championship. During the match, Cole would get involved and ambush Black from behind. Cole began to retreat and lured Black into the crowd, allowing O’Reilly and Fish to retain their titles. NXT General Manager William Regal then came out and announced an Extreme Rules match between Black and Cole at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. On the January 10 episode of NXT, Shayna Baszler made her NXT in-ring debut against Dakota Kai, which ended in a referee stoppage after Baszler injured Kai's arm. After the match, Baszler continued to attack Kai's arm again while the medical staff were tending to the injury, causing NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon to rush to the aid of Kai to stop the attack. On the January 17 episode of NXT, after losing a match to Lacey Evans, Aliyah was attacked by Baszler, causing Moon to rush to stop Baszler's attacks again. After this attack, Moon challenged Baszler to a match to end her bullying tactics. Baszler refused unless the NXT Women's Championship was on the line at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. Moon accepted, and the title match was made official by NXT General Manager William Regal. During a January 24, 2018 conference call promoting NXT TakeOver, Triple H confirmed that a match up between Velveteen Dream and Kassius Ohno would take place at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. Results Other on screen personnel See also * NXT: TakeOver Category:NXT TakeOver series Category:2018 Pay-Per-View Events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events